Safe to say, Stevenson didn't fully realize the emotional impact of their chance encounter until a few days later.

"I went to his memorial service. I haven't cried in 93 years," Geist joked. "And I proceeded to just (wail)."

Maybe it's because they were in the war together and few others could relate to exactly what Stevenson went through in Vietnam.

"No one else knows what it was like," Stevenson said.

Who knows if Geist recognized him in that hospice room. He couldn't even talk at that point. But their conversation mattered.

"And there have been studies and there are books out there, tons of books out there, that basically say, yeah, they do hear you. And our hearing is the last thing to go, so when you are at a person's bedside who's passing away or 'transitioning,' talk to them," said Dora Mueller, a field nurse at Denver Hospice.

"I don't want to say it was selfish, but it was very meaningful for me," Stevenson said.

Helping people prepare for the end of life. Stevenson knew that's what he signed up for. Little did he know, how personal the job could be.

Geist died on Sept. 24th. He spent 20 years in the Air Force, flying 187 combat missions during the Vietnam War.

November is national hospice and palliative care month, a chance to call attention to people who work so hard, to make the end of life more comfortable and understandable for patients and their families.